I work for the Willamette University Sustainability Council as a research assistant, and I’m currently examining the feasibility of putting alternative energy on campus.

I am a pacifist, a bleeding-heart liberal, a member of the loony left, and a card carrying member of the ACLU. I support gay marriage, abortion rights, and John Edwards for president. I am pro-free speech, pro-gun control, and pro-judicial branch.

But, like most other political junkies, I am defined by what I hate. I hate extremists. Extremists of all kinds: extremists that blow up embassies, extremists that censor music at WalMart. Extremists that want the Ten Commandments posted in public schools, extremists that want to ban religion. Religious extremists and feminist extremists. Most of all, I hate extremists that I agree with, because they hurt the cause, and because they focus on one issue to the exclusion of all others. When you see only feminist issues, only race issues, only poverty issues, only religious issues, or only scientific issues, you cannot change everything else that is going wrong in the world.